Introduction [TJ]

6.2.2 Conceptualising and Launching of the Project

When GEEP launched this project in February 1999, it already had a 130-club membership in the Family, Life and Education (FLE) network. The project has made it possible for GEEP to decentralise management of FLE activities and initiate 11 pilot youth centres for information and counselling (youth fora).

Since 1990, GEEP has been working closely with government authorities to give students a leading role in awareness raising, training and research on population and environmental issues. GEEP’s main targets in this initiative are secondary school students (13-21 years) and teachers.

In 1994, GEEP took a bold step forward that lent formal recognition to its initiatives in the school setting with the launch of a project for promoting family life education at the intermediate and secondary levels in Senegal, implemented with support from UNFPA. The project was structured around the following components:

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  Setting up FLE clubs;
  
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  Introducing an innovative approach to review methodologies for teaching/learning on population issues and phenomena;
  
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  Undertaking initiatives to improve environmental management based on recycling waste for greener school environments;²⁵⁴
  
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  Enhancing the administrative management in the context of better ownership of computer technology and the computerisation of school data;
  
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  Organising the first festival on FLE clubs (1995), as well as youth holiday camps (1995-1996), FLE regional reflection days (1996-1997), and the annual population and development contest;
  
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  Developing teaching materials to improve teaching/learning on population issues;
  
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  Conducting surveys on adolescent sexuality in the school setting (1995); and
  
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  Providing over half of the FLE clubs with audio-visual equipment (45 FLE clubs out of a total of 74 were equipped in 1996).
  

The project aims to promote access to ICTs and improve the quality of education by:

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  Training teachers;
  
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  Building skills;
  
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  Providing relevant and up-to-date teaching/learning mediums;
  
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  Consolidating the Youth Cyber Club network; and
  

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  Bringing significant changes in the school setting and making ICTs more accessible to youth, as the Acacia project is helping to do.
  

This project also aims to enhance administrative management by encouraging improved ownership of computer technology and the computerisation of school data.

Setting up FLE clubs has been a challenging, yet satisfying task. By December 1996, GEEP had set up 45 FLE clubs, 15 more than the 30 planned initially. In December 1997, there were 71 member clubs in the national FLE network. The rising numbers in the national territory have however made it difficult for the Dakar-based GEEP to communicate directly with all of them. High costs and the difficulty of travelling present major challenges when organising national or even regional events. There are also difficulties in the FLE clubs communicating with each other. By virtue of its close partnership with Canada’s Club 2/3, GEEP FLE club members find it increasingly necessary to communicate directly with youth in Club 2/3. This is not always possible due to the lack of adequate infrastructure.
The lack of resources, especially materials for teaching/learning, strongly hinders GEEP’s work. For example, it is difficult to replicate innovative models such as interdisciplinary population education and FLE clubs. Communication with the wider world is difficult, and teachers as well as students lack the tools to express their creativity more widely.
At the second national festival on FLE clubs, organised with support from the IDRC as part of Acacia’s Strategy for Senegal, there were various activities, notably those on “Youth Cyber Clubs”. These provided eloquent testimony that young people were not only creative and innovative, but they also had a high capacity to assimilate new experiences.

The youth in FLE clubs, as well as their supervisors and some parents, wished this pilot initiative to continue, expand and be decentralised after the festival. The ensuing project lasted for two years, from November 1998 to October 2000.

The pilot Youth Cyber Clubs project is part of the Acacia program in Senegal. Launched in 1997 for a period of two years, the project is a part of global initiatives to support Africans in their efforts to develop infrastructure and communication services to connect them to the global information highway.
The IDRC’s Acacia programme has provided GEEP with support in the form of:

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  Grant funding for equipping the Youth Cyber Clubs;
  
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  Training for students and teachers responsible for providing oversight;
  
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  Hiring of a computer expert and consultants;
  
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  Launching the research programme; and
  
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  Providing documents and tools for facilitation.
  

6.2.3 Project Objectives

The general objective of this project is to:

“Improve the FLE club model for teaching, facilitating and raising awareness of population, environmental and sustainable development issues by introducing ICTs and opening Youth Cyber Clubs in Senegal’s schools.”

GEEP therefore conceived a comprehensive program targeting young people. This program aims to

Build a body of knowledge on issues related to populations and

Promote new behaviours regarding reproductive and sexual health

Promote the introduction of environment in school curricula

Develop leadership among youth through education on citizenship and the promotion of human rights

Create an inter-school and an international network, thinking and sharing knowledge on sustainable development issues.

Specific objectives are to:

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  Open twelve Youth Cyber Clubs through Senegal’s national FLE club network. Each Youth Cyber Club will be equipped with a multimedia computer, a modem, an energy backup source, and a laser printer. Similarly, the Cyber Clubs will receive grants for office rental;
  

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  Promote and capitalise on achievements of FLE clubs, and set up a network for exchange between FLE clubs and Club 2/3 in Canada;
  
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  Build the skills of youth and their supervisors by training 60 trainers to use ICTs, including 40 youth leaders and 20 teachers serving as technical relays, to enable them to be more open to the community;
  
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  Sensitise 10 000 students, 150 teachers and 50 school administrators to the importance of ICTs;
  
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  Improve students’ school performance, teaching methods and the resources available in school resource centres;
  
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  Promote the interdisciplinary model on population teaching/learning;
  
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  Sensitise community members to, and train them in ICTs; and
  
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  Study the impact of access to ICTs on the activities of FLE clubs and the performance of children at school.
  

The project’s key education targets are:

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  FLE club facilitation;
  
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  FLE club management;
  
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  Population education through the interdisciplinary model on GEEP’s Website;
  
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  Reinforcing the teaching of social sciences, natural sciences and technology; and
  
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  Promoting discussion fora.
  

In addition, this project targets the strengthening and development of research capacity into the FLE clubs. Certain research issues have already been studied, such as:

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  The impact of ICTs on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of student leaders and facilitators in reproductive health and environmental concerns;
  

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  Experiences from rural Youth Cyber Clubs during GEEP’s summer holiday camps e.g. Ndiebel in 1999 and Mboro in 2000. These experiences seek, inter alia, to: demonstrate the potential of ICTs, show rural inhabitants, using concrete examples from their setting, how they can get the best out of their activities through the use of ICTs; and give those without access to computers the opportunity to understand and familiarise themselves with ICTs.
  

New activities that are planned include:

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  Services to end the isolation of certain localities and to enable them to communicate with the wider world through the Internet;
  
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  Creation of databases in different areas for easy consultation and at low cost; and the
  
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  Creation of a computer training centre (word processing, Internet access), a counselling centre for youth, an inter-community and inter-cyber production and exchange centre, and a research centre.